Eileen's avatarEileen

I’ve been doing cryptic crosswords since university days, learning how with a group of friends in coffee breaks. The Guardian crossword has been part of my life for most of the time since. Since retiring from teaching (originally Classics and, subsequently, when that was dropped from the curriculum, mostly English and History), having serendipitously stumbled on 15², I discovered that I could get the Indy and FT puzzles online and so I now add those, when they are set by my favourite compilers. Occasionally, I try the Genius and have even submitted a few. (Some years ago, I won a Collins dictionary in the Guardian Prize lottery, which established it as my referred reference.) I don’t take note of solving times: I enjoy taking time savouring the construction and particularly the surface of clues and always feel slightly disappointed when I finish too quickly. My one regret is my complete failure to enthuse any member of my family with cryptic crosswords.

Guardian 26,212 / Paul

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An entertaining puzzle from Paul – reasonably straightforward, I think, with some ingenious constructions and several smiles to help things along. Many thanks to him. Across 8 Granny made beastly remark about president … Read more >>

Guardian 26,205 / Logodaedalus

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Logodaedalus puzzles appear very rarely – the last one was August last year, which was over eighteen months after the previous one. The wordplay is, characteristically, very straightforward throughout, with a number of … Read more >>

Guardian 26,198 / Qaos

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I’m a big fan of Qaos’ puzzles. His first cryptic appeared just over two years ago and I blog once a week, yet this is the first of his to fall to me. … Read more >>

Guardian 26,191 / Brendan

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It’s a long time since we had a Rufusless Monday: December 9th was the last time Brendan was called up from the bench. If anyone had told me the theme before I began, … Read more >>

Guardian 26,182 / Paul

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Paul on top form, though not at his most difficult – a very enjoyable puzzle, with some very clever and well-hidden anagrams and several examples of the quirky cluing that we expect from … Read more >>

Guardian 26,168 / Gordius

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Regular readers will know that seeing Gordius’ name on a puzzle does not make my heart leap and this did little, for me, to lift the gloom of a wet morning. I thought … Read more >>

Guardian 26,161 / Rufus

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. Thank you, Rufus, for another typically genial introduction to the week Across 1 To fall back, a mistake made by soldiers (7) RELAPSE RE [soldiers] + LAPSE [mistake] 5 Sea mist represented … Read more >>

Guardian 26,159 / Puck

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It’s always a  delight to find Puck’s name on a puzzle and this one certainly lived up to expectations. Some of the wordplay was characteristically tricky and there were several penny-dropping moments, producing … Read more >>

Guardian Prize 26,148 / Paul

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[Two blogs of Paul puzzles from me in as many days – but the following was actually written first, being last Saturday’s Prize crossword. It has none of the Pauline schoolboy humour that … Read more >>

Guardian 26,152 / Paul

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A fairly typical Paul puzzle, with some of his trademark schoolboy humour and a mixture of quite straightforward charades and double definitions, together with some more complicated and misleading constructions. An enjoyable solve … Read more >>